Friday, October 14, 2022

Local-Regional News Oct 14

 The City of Durand did not receive a grant from the Wisconsin DOT for the Main Street reconstruction project.   Durand Mayor Patrick Milliren says, according to the city engineer, there will be additional DOT grant opportunities for the city.  The city did receive a grant for Madison Street in the downtown earlier this year.


The City of Mondovi is working on the 2023 city budget.  Mondovi Mayor Brady Weiss says the new citywide re-assessment will play a factor in the levy.  The city will have a levy authorization of $938,946 in 2023.

 

Two teens are dead, and a teenage driver is facing intoxicated driving charges from a crash in northwest Wisconsin   A second girl died as a result of a rollover crash on Monday. She was one of four Rice Lake area teens in the car. Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald said early Thursday that a 15-year-old girl died at a hospital in Minnesota. A 14-year-old girl passed away earlier this week and another 14-year-old girl remained in the hospital with a severe arm injury as of Wednesday. A 16-year-old boy, the driver in the crash, was in custody in Eau Claire, on suspicion of driving while intoxicated-causing injury.


The sheriff in Rusk County says a man is dead after hitting a deer while riding his ATV. It happened Sunday morning in Big Bend township. Deputies say the man was tossed from his ATV in the crash. He was not wearing a helmet, and authorities say he suffered serious head injuries. 


Wisconsin's latest coronavirus map is a sea of green. The CDC says most of the state is seeing low coronavirus levels. Milwaukee and the WOW counties are seeing medium levels, but just two counties are seeing high levels. Rusk and Barron counties in western Wisconsin are the only areas of the state in the orange, but that may be because of their low population and not because of a spike in new coronavirus cases. 


Offensive social media posts have led to the resignation of a College Republican leader.  UW La Crosse College Republicans chair Megan Pauly resigned hours after anti-Semitic and racist chalk messages on campus sidewalks were posted to social media. The posts were deleted but were shared on social media by College Democrats and the state Democratic Party. In her resignation statement, Pauly said she wouldn't stand by while others are ostracized, and that anti-Semitism and hate speech have no place in the College Republicans. 


La Crosse's ban on conversion therapy is now part of a federal lawsuit. The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty yesterday filed a lawsuit to end the city's recently approved ban. Advocates and some city leaders say conversion therapy, where a therapist talks to people about their sexuality, is harmful to the LGBTQ+ community. WILL said the city doesn't get to punish doctors for expressing unpopular ideas. La Crosse first approved the ordinance back in June, but it was flagged a month later because of free speech concerns


Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin are getting angrier and angrier with the people in charge of professional licenses in the state. State Senator Rob Stafsholt on Wednesday blasted the state's Department of Safety and Professional Services for ignoring them. Stafsholt says lawmakers asked five simple questions in August about Wisconsin's months-long licensing backlog, but he says DSPS has ignored them. Stafsholt said someone needs to explain not only why everyone from dental assistants to engineers are waiting so long to get their license, but also why the Evers' Administration is freezing-out the legislature. 


Inflation tops the list of voter concerns in the latest Marquette Law School Poll.   Since August of last year, respondents have been asked to rate how concerned they are with a variety of issues. In the latest poll released Wednesday, 68 percent were very concerned with inflation. Sixty percent were very concerned with public schools and gun violence, 56 percent with abortion policy and crime, 52 percent with an accurate vote count, 47 percent with taxes, 40 percent with illegal immigration, and just 13 percent were very concerned about the Coronavirus.


Now is a good time to check the apps on your phone and make sure they're still doing what you want.  Michelle Reinen with the Wisconsin Division of Consumer Protection says your phone carries a lot of data about you that you might not even realize you're sharing with companies. Many apps share data between themselves and can create a profile of you that can be sold to advertisers and others. If you don't need an app on your phone, it's best to get rid of it.


 Vandals smashed in the front and rear windows of Beth Isreal Sinai late Sunday night and early Monday morning. Synagogue treasurer David Lee tells the Racine Journal Times that the larger Jewish community in the United States has been dealing with a rise of concerted attacks over the last several years. The last vandalism was in 2019 when someone spraypainted a swastika on the outside of the temple.


 Madison has sent its first 500 dollar guaranteed income checks.  Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway yesterday said 150 low income families are going to get 500 dollars each month for the next year.  The money has no strings attached, so people can spend it on whatever they want.  Rhodes-Conway says the idea is to help low income families by giving them some flexibility.  The guaranteed income program will cost Madison nearly a million-dollars over the next 12 months. 


A Minnesota based window and door manufacturer is settling a discrimination claim.  Andersen Corporation was accused of withdrawing a job offer after learning of an applicant's disability.  The company will pay the man 41 thousand dollars.  Anderson will also follow several stipulations designed to build a more inclusive workplace for people with disabilities.


Over 66-hundred more small businesses and non-profits across Wisconsin are getting Main Street Bounceback grants from the state government.  Today Governor Tony Evers  [[  EE-vurz  ]]  announced the grants will go to businesses and non-profits in all 72 Wisconsin counties.  Evers says he plans to invest 100-million dollars into the program and help ten-thousand organizations.


 Free fentanyl test strips are now available across Wisconsin.  The Wisconsin Department of Health Services now has a tool on its website where you can search places to find the test strips.  The department says drugs mixed with fentanyl are the leading cause of overdose deaths in Wisconsin.

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